To the editor:

I believe water is life. I believe keeping water clean should be a part of life.

When I first moved here, I was in awe of the marine life that visited me off my dock. The wonder of nature was present day and night. As time progressed, priorities moved to development at all costs; and our waters deteriorated.

I wanted to help in whatever small way I could. I put several vertical oyster gardens (VOG) around my dock to help filter the toxins out of the water. At first, the VOGs were growing lots of life. Then, starting last fall, the VOGs began to die. After the latest releases from Lake O, the VOGs now are barren. That helps explain why marine life is so desolate now.

We have laws to protect our waters — which haven’t kept our waters clean. We have agencies to protect our waters –still our waters are not clean. We spend a tremendous amount of tax dollars cleaning up what never should have been permitted — yet our waters continue to worsen.

As someone once said, “Water is life — so let’s save the life of water.” You can do your part. If you signed the 2024 petition to grant Floridians a Constitutional Right to Clean and Healthy Water, you will be getting a new one for the 2026 initiative in the mail. Fill it out and get some friends/neighbors to join you. Each of us can do our part to clean up the waters.

Mary Kay Robbins-Kralapp

Cape Coral